There are many things I don’t give much thought to. Yet today, “One of Our Submarines Is Missing” by Thomas Dolby, popped into my head. I loved this song when I first heard it and I still enjoy it in all its Ur New Wave production frippery. I even remember that it did not appear on the US release of Dolby’s breakout album, though it was on the (much pricier) UK version. Then I tried to recall other favorite Dolby tunes. “She Blinded Me With Science” is the obvious one, as imprinted in all of us as a Motown hit. “Europa and the Pirate Twins” still stirs psychic zephyrs of of breezy longing for a innocent love that I maybe experienced in the briefest of flashes in my late teens and early 20s. Then I tried to remember other Dolby songs. I couldn’t. I can’t. Ok, maybe “Radio Silence,” but I’d argue that’s just good, not great.
The challenge is not to look up Thomas Dolby songs on Google. The challenge is to come up with a Dolby song or songs that you think are as defensibly great as the three as I mentioned above, and then defend your choice(s) in the Hall like a gentleman with a one spectacle eye glass and some unnecessary though fetching steampunk headwear. Bonus points to Dolby for being an early progenitor of the Steampunk look. Bro-wear, such as khaki or relaxed fit, get no such bonus points.
I like “Europa” a lot and I’ve never seen the video for this song before. One song that I think is catchy is “Keys to Her Ferrari”, though some here might find it a bit Kenton-esque. That’s what I like about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejedQA3KPzQ
I confess – I got back from the gym about an hour ago where I ran to Thomas Dolby’s “The Flat Earth” album. This thread is synchronous!
The first album was released on the Harvest label and it didn’t have “Science” or “Submarines” and a different version of another song – I think “Radio Silence.” It had two other songs, “Leipzig” and “Urges.” The “Blinded By Science EP” had those songs, and then the US version of the album was released with “Science” and “Submarines.” I think that’s what it was. The re-issue of “Wireless” was a real corker, because it contained all of the songs, plus a link to downloads of a bunch of cool demos AND it has a DVD of the “Live Wireless” video, which I had on VHS back in the day.
It’s hard for me to pick out songs for this challenge, since I apparently like them more than most. Seems like you are looking for more upbeat numbers, which he seemed to put behind him after the first album. The 2nd album has “Hyperactive,” but that seems like a willful retread to me, and it’s just tacked to the end of the album.
But here are some slightly obscure numbers of his maybe you’d like:
Puppet Theatre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCDcJGZ5MsQ
New Toy (sung by Lena Lovich):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USa_OTC3-Q8
Original version of Radio Silence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEz6QiftGgg
How weird that this came up today.
This is outside the scope of your challenge, but by GOD, Thomas Dolby got a superb album out of Prefab Sprout in “Two Wheels Good.” Who’da thunk you could meld Dolby-an gnu wave with celtic-folky primitivism? Thomas Dolby did — and he was right! I love that album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEzLp4MWeBw
My post awaits moderation?
I made a post this afternoon and it seems to have been eaten. Just as well, I take it all back, didn’t mean it. I’ll post this song, “Screen Kiss.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2sXeFDYE4
I think it is Dolby at his most cinematic and thoughtful. It’s not a big pop song like those you mention – which is why I had made a post with some upbeat songs in it. That second record, so much more expansive that the first, maybe less concise and focused, but more ambitious too. Only seven songs, with “Hyperactive” tacked onto the end, as if to say, “ok, here’s your single, so similar to the big hit.”
I saw him at the Tower and thought it was rad.
Lots to like on the Dolby albums. I agree with cher; the subsequent albums are increasingly more ambitious, more produced. I like the cozy and focused sound of the first album’s synthesizers and effects. More distinctive perhaps. But the later stuff has its own charms.
OK, so to the question. I can’t really disagree with choosing “Blinded” and “Europa”, but I can submit something from each album worthy of consideration for greatness:
1 – Wireless: A runner-up to “One Of Our Submarines”, but “Windpower” is very good. That is a CRAZY bassline sound.
2 – The Flat Earth: The title track seems to be sad and sentimental and is beautiful. Lacks the high energy of the others, but still.
3 – Aliens Ate My Buick: The album is consistently fun and shockingly funky. “Pulp Culture” is super. But “Airhead” is great — lyrically ironic and funny, and fitting the album theme it has a great weird Dolby funk thing going on.
4 – Astronauts and Heretics: a much less consistently enjoyable album, with some good stuff. But “I Live in a Suitcase” is worthy of consideration. A nice groove and synth atmosphere. (Lyrically I get the feeling this is autobiographical, describing settling in L.A.?)
5 – kind of ashamed I have not checked this album out given my fondness of everything else
trivia: who plays harmonica on “Europa”?
PS – The 2006 solo tour album The Sole Inhabitant has some nice live renditions of everything on it.
I see my previous post is now approved, how retro!
When I was in high school, my friend and I had a holy grail record, which was to find Thomas Dolby’s studio recording of Joni Mitchell’s song, “The Jungle Line.” We never found it, only heard rumours of its existence. Turns out, one reason we couldn’t find it was because it wasn’t released under Dolby’s name, but under the group name, “Low Noise.”
But then, years later, enter… the internet:
http://samemistakesmusic.blogspot.com/2009/03/jungle-line-by-low-noise.html
There’s some limit set on the amount of links that anyone can post in a comment without your Moderator’s approval. The limit may be 3 links, before the post is in need of review. It’s a spam prevention thing. I’m sorry for the delay, but I don’t always see these flagged comments awaiting my approval. Eventually I do, often because an understandably impatient commentator points out that their first post never appeared.
Harmonica has to be Huey Lewis. It always is.
Mellower cuts are cool and worthy!
I’m a gigantic fan of “New Toy.” I wonder if that’s an acceptable entry, as it’s a Lena Lovich release. What say you, Hall?
Wow, that’s a lot of Dolby homework to do.
I had no idea he was involved in that song! I’m always surprised by the amount of friends I have with “cool” tastes who allow Dolby’s music to creep into their playlists. I couldn’t stand his big hit song, as I couldn’t stand most things over-the-top ’80s. (The “SCIENCE!” bit was a deal-breaker any time I felt myself making any sense of why fellow friends with cool tastes thought Dolby was pretty good.) To this day I’m still afraid to listen to his music, for fear that the SCIENCE! bit will pop up in any and every song I try.
It doesn’t.
That is definitely an A+ album.
So in agreement. I listen to that album all the time.
A song I think of all the time is “My Brain is Like a Sieve,” from the “Aliens Ate My Buick” album. That title comes to me all the time. Unusual track for Dolby as it combines reggae and ballad. Here’s his live, minimalist rendition from a couple of years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyw86GJ1Jfk
Interesting observation,trolleyvox, about his introduction of the Steampunk look. Can anyone think of bands adopting that look earlier?
Like you, I’m a big Thomas Dolby fan, and also knew only the singles. (Plus he was so cute back in the day: I loved the eyeliner.)
Here’s a song from “Two Wheels Good” aka “Steve McQueen” that includes the same synth effect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeZkLV3ZjeI
I am almost sure that I only know “Science” and “Hyperactive,” at least I cannot name another song by Dolby even though I know I heard more back in the day. I am dumbstruck that I never knew he wrote “New Toy,” which I’ve loved since it came out. Once again, always learning stuff. I might add that until recently–like, this week, maybe?–I had no idea that steampunk was a term or what it means. As far as that goes, I barely have an idea now.
Hint: his name rhymes with Randy Fartbridge.
I’m a big fan of “Hyperactive”, mainly because of the co-vocal by Adele Bertei, who used to mash down keys on the organ in the Contortions. I originally saw Dolby as the keyboard player in Bruce Wooley and the Camera Club, who did the original version of “Video Killed the Radio Star”. I think that was sometime in the 17th century.
Those Sprout albums are very near and dear to me.